Watching the Big Ten championship game on Saturday, I heard a familiar name.
Ohio State came from 3-1 down in the third period to tie the game on a late goal by Gunnarwolfe Fontaine. (Michigan State eventually won, 4-3, in double overtime.)
RPI fans may remember that early in 2018, Fontaine gave a verbal commitment to attend RPI.
He never played for the Engineers. Instead of coming to Troy, he decided to play a couple years of junior hockey in the USHL. When he finally decided to play college hockey, he went to Northeastern.
He played for Northeastern in four seasons. Since the first of those four was curtailed due to COVID, he was granted a fifth year of eligibility. Rather than returning to Northeastern, he entered the transfer portal, and that's how he wound up at Ohio State - ironically, the alma mater of Dave Smith, the coach who secured that verbal commitment in 2018.
He led the Buckeyes with 9 shots on goal (seven of them on net) in last night's game. Hope whoever RPI's new coach is, he'll be able to recruit a few snipers like Fontaine - and actually get them to honor their commitments.